Joined: 09 Jul 2006Posts: 9702Location: I have to be somewhere? ::runs around frantically::

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 4:05 pm Post subject:

Pancakes? I don't know how well those would hold up in a lunch thing though... Grilled cheese perhaps?

So my guy experimented with pork + carrots + lavender + garlic + a little white wine (the lavender was the flavoring for the pan sauce). It was very, very tasty. However, the recipe needs to be tweaked a bit. I think it may need some cream. What do you guys think?

Saute chunks of garlic in olive oil. Pull chunks out when they start to get soft.
Sear pork in oil. Pull out and wrap/cover in foil.
Deglaze with white wine (we used cooking wine but we will use drinking wine next time). Add lavender and reduce.
Cook carrots in sauce. Add pork back in when carrots are almost done.
Tada!

It was less of a sauce and more of a dressing (?) because there wasn't much of it. It was so amazing on the carrots. I think we are going to try adding some chicken stock and some cream next time so it is more of a sauce._________________Before God created Las he pondered on all the aspects a woman might have, he considered which ones would look good super-inflated and which ones to leave alone.
After much deliberation he gave her a giant comfort zone. - Michael

las, your guy's recipe sounds pretty fine. i'm thinking that the use of a good dry white -- maybe a sauvignon blanc -- would take it a level up from the use of cooking wine. the standard advice is: don't cook with anything you wouldn't drink..and cooking wine generally includes salt, which makes me very suspicious.

a good, relatively cheap wine that i can recommend from new zealand: kim crawford marlborough sauvignon blanc. goes for 12.99 at costco. been buying it for the last several years, and it has a distinct grapefruit note that i think would do nicely with the lavender and the carrots._________________dogs have ownerscats have staff

i thought the instruction about freezing the stuffed artichokes before frying them was inspired. otherwise all the delicious boursin would ooze out into the oil when frying them...and that can't be good.

let us know how they turn out so we can enjoy them vicariously!_________________dogs have ownerscats have staff

thanks! i'll let you know how it turns out; i left out the broccoli because my boyfriend thinks vegetables don't belong in lasagna, because he is a barbarian. originally there was some pepper and hot pepper, but i hate pepper so i took it out, and while it was only supposed to serve 4, there was enough cheese for 5 noodles, so i changed that too.

Drain noodles. Spread about 3/4 cup of the cheese mixture to edges of each noodle. Roll up noodles. Place seam sides down on spaghetti sauce. Pour remaining spaghetti sauce over roll-ups. Cover and bake about 35 minutes or until sauce is hot and bubbly.

_________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.http://about.me/omardrake

Alright, I finally feel like I have a recipe that's good enough to share.

Pesto Pizza
This is a really easy recipe, but it is not a quick recipe. I only have the time to make pizza's on the weekend. If I start the dough at 3:00, the Pizza is usually done between 5:30-6:00. Most of that time is waiting for the dough to rise.

The Dough recipe is one that I originally found on the internet and then tinkered with until I loved it. Anyway, here goes:

Pour the warm water into a bowl and add the honey and salt. Mix until blended. Add the yeast and mix. Let this mixture sit for about 5 minutes. Add 1 cup of flour and the olive oil and mix until well blended. Mix the rest of the flour in 1/2 cup at a time until the dough balls up. If the dough does not ball up because it's too dry, add water one tablespoon at a time until it does. If your mixture is more like a batter, add flour one tablespoon at a time. I've made this dough in Iowa and in North Dakota and the difference in humidity can make a significant difference in the amount of flour you will need to use. You want the dough to be elastic, but not so sticky that it stays on your hand when you knead it.

I usually start kneading the dough when I have 1/2 cup of flour left, just to make sure that the dough feels right. Knead the dough for a minute or two and then place it in a greased, covered bowl and let it rise for about 45 minutes or until it has doubled in size.

After about 45 minutes, punch the dough down and let it double again. This can take between 1-1.5 hours. I usually sprinkle some cornmeal on a counter and roll the dough out there and then transfer the dough to a pizza pan. I have rolled the dough out directly on the pizza pan as well and this works, too.

Before you add any toppings, it's a good idea to partially bake the dough.; this is going to be a surprisingly thick crust, thanks to the yeast. Take a fork, and poke the crust all over. Preheat the oven to 425 and bake the crust for about 8 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden. Then add your toppings and put the pizza in for another 5-8 minutes.

That was a lot of typing, but it's a really great crust. I've made it a number of times now and it's been a hit every time.

Part II - Pesto Sauce
While you're waiting for the dough to rise, you will have ample time to make a sauce and prepare toppings. I'd never had a pesto sauce before this year; now some of the best pizzas I've ever had are pesto pizzas. This recipe is both quick and easy.

Put everything into a food processor or blender. Pulse the machine on and off so that you get a fairly coarse grind. You'll have to scrape the sides down once or twice to make sure that the mixture has the same consistency. That's it. It makes one cup of sauce or enough for a large pizza.

For the carnivores out there, fry up a half a pound of ground Italian sausage and sprinkle it on the pizza with some roasted red pepper. Then top it off with about 6 ounces each of mozzarella and fontina cheese.

For the vegetarians, I really like topping it off with sun dried tomatoes and thick slices of smoked mozzarella.

This recipe does take a pretty sizable time commitment, but I have had nothing but good experiences with it._________________Scire aliquid laus est, pudor est non discere velle
"It is laudable to know something, it is disgraceful to not want to learn"
~Seneca

1. Pour all the ice into a large glass or plastic bowl, cover it with salt, and stir.

2. In a bowl, mix milk, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt together until sugar dissolves. Pour into a sealable 1-gallon freezer bag, push out as much air as possible, and seal.

3. Place a wide plastic bowl with a lid, like a salad spinner bowl, on a kitchen towel. Fill bowl with about half the ice. Lay freezer bag on ice and flatten it with your hand. Dump rest of the ice, along with any melted water, on top of bag, leaving zipper edge exposed. Place lid on the bowl. Let rest for 15 minutes, shaking it once or twice to redistribute ice and brine.

4. Pour about half the ice and brine into another bowl. Lift bag out by the zipper edge and lay it on a towel. (Avoid touching ice or brine, which are cold enough to cause frostbite.) Cover your hands with another towel and gently knead frozen areas for about a minute to mix them with liquid.

5. Return freezer bag to bowl, laying it flat on ice. Cover it with reserved ice and brine. Put lid on bowl and freeze as above for another 15 minutes.

6. Remove bag and carefully towel off the brine. Serve ice cream, or keep bag in freezer until ready to serve.

Yield: One pint.

Note: You can use this method to freeze any ice cream or sorbet mix. If you make ice cream regularly, you can eliminate ice cubes and reuse salt. Make a brine with 3 quarts water and 1 pound salt, divide it between two 1-gallon freezer bags, and store bags flat in freezer. To make ice cream, sandwich the bag of mix between brine bags, enclosing stack in towels.

I used to make brine for freezing bio samples of marron when we would forget the liquid nitrogen, oh and super chilling beer at the end of the day too. Science in action in the field woot woot._________________(_**_) *note to self, insert bottle at other end.

You make tiny sandwiches with the crackers, putting some of the scrambled egg whites and tiny pieces of ham inside the two sandwiches. The third cracker, you add the scrambled egg on top with the slices of ham and eat it like that. You should have some egg white and ham left over. Eat that with a knife a fork.

It's yummy and it's got lots of protein to make you feel full for at least 3-4 hours. And it's only 180 calories (240 if you drink a nice big glass of light yoghurt with it), which leaves something like 1000 calories to eat for the rest of the day (or less, but I'm not supposed to say that cause you should never eat less then 1200 calories a day. Never. Except me. Okay?)

1. Heat chicken and hot sauce in a skillet over medium heat, until heated through. Stir in cream cheese and ranch dressing. Cook, stirring until well blended and warm. Mix in half of the shredded cheese, and transfer the mixture to a slow cooker. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, cover, and cook on Low setting until hot and bubbly.

Eat with crackers, chips, bread, whatever you feel like

Also, More easy recipes would be great. I hate cooking complicated things for only one or two people.

Joined: 01 Oct 2006Posts: 9123Location: The thing in itself that is Will

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 11:33 am Post subject:

100 grams of rice per person
1 can of kidney beans per person
chicken, as much as you'd like per person
Vegetables (Any amount of carrot, eggplant, zuchini,peppers. Also you could do precut veggies)
Sesame oil, garlic, spring onions (fine) , chilli peppers, salt and black pepper and Ketjap manis

1. Marinade chicken with sesame oil, cut veggies, boil rice.
2. fruit the galic, chili peppers+black peper and onions in a wok with the sesame oil, add chicken, then add the veggies. Stir fry them on a high fire.
3. After a few minutes add the whole can of kidney beans, including the fluid !
4 Add ketjap manis to taste. Its a sweet, defined soy sauce. Very nice for flavoring rice.
5. Drain rice, then add it to the wok. Stir fry for another few minutes, mixing the rice. Season with salt and black peper. As extra serving tip, keep some with rice and you can make a "trail"

the end result: A very big pan of good fried rice with beans. Depending whether you use pre cut veggies (chinese mix) you can be done in just over ten minutes.

Anyways, i cook very big amounts once and i have eat 2-3 evenings worth of hot meals. Also cheap, since you can use family size packages and then freeze what you got left after three days._________________When life gives you lemons, some people make lemonade. I just eat them and make a sour face.

bake a thawed frozen pie crust at 400 for 10 minutes.
sautee a sliced onion in oil on medium until soft. sprinkle tomato slices with flour & dried basil, and sautee a minute per side.
in a bowl, mix 3 eggs and a half cup of milk, and season with salt/pepper.
sprinkle a cup of shredded cheese on bottom of pie crust, cover with onion, cover that with tomato. pour egg mixture over and sprinkle half cup of cheese on top.